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Since today is December 1st, I am leading off this post with our first ornament on the tree – the first one I made over two weeks ago. It is perfect in its spot at the top of the tree, right by the Christmas star.

Top

Bottom middle

Second from top and bottom piece

First of all, I had two 1 yard pieces of felt, one in dark green and the other in hunter green. I placed and cut out the pieces with a pair of smaller fiskars – one of my daughter’s school scissors was perfect for that!

All cut out!! I think it looks pretty – but I may be biased! Yes, it’s still a triangle, but I think the bounces help break it up a bit.

I decided to sew the pieces together with a simple running stitch. Worked out quite well!!

I added a Christmas star, the pattern for which can be found here: Printable Star Pattern and for a while I decided that it was done.

But after sitting and contemplating it for a while. I decided that it needed some further decorations, so I added some of the craft ribbons I found at Target in the dollar section. I adhered the ribbon on with craft glue dots. The white dots you can see all over are velcro dots – their mates are now stuck to the back on the ornaments.

Here it is, mostly complete. I am still working on the ornaments as we speak. I have a Peppa Pig ornament and a Sheep ornament in the works, and I hope to have them completed by tomorrow afternoon. I also raised the Advent tree up about 1/2 a metre, as my youngest two were overly obsessed with pulling things off. Which is not too much of a worry, but it would be nice if they don’t destroy it within hours of it being put up 😉

Here is my second offering of handmade felt ornaments! Out of this batch, I am most proud of my Elf on the Shelf!

First up however, we have a Hello Kitty for my middle daughter – Leia. I chose this one because her initials are L.O.V.E and she is a Hello Kitty fanatic 🙂 I got the image here: Hello Kitty Coloring Pages and simply resized them within a word document so that I would have enough copies of the image to make the pieces I needed. I know Hello Kitty’s bow is usually red, but since Leia loves the color green, I chose to further make this hers by making it green.

This is my favourite! It is far from perfect, but I am so very pleased with it! I found it hard to find decent looking clip art online, so when I was in Joanns the other day, I grabbed a small candy container, scanned it into my computer and made my own template from that. Once again I used a word document to size the pictures the way I wanted, and then cut out the appropriate pieces. No, does it look like a perfect representation of an elf on the shelf? No… it’s eyes are too close for one thing, but my girls think that it looks like our Judy Elf, which is all that I was aiming for!!

I love Matryoshka Dolls. I decided that our advent tree needed one. It turned out so well and I got to learn how to do chain stitch to make it! You can too… I learnt it on this youtube video: Chain Stitch. I got the pattern for this doll here: Matryoshka Doll Ornament. It was fun to make and very striking! Definately in my top 10 favourites 🙂

The last two are two traditional(ish) Christmas tree ornaments. Like the patterns creator I decided to keep things simple with them, and I think they are lovely and festive! I got the pattern for them here: Vintage Felt Baubles found at Bugs and Fishes. I am loving a lot of her patterns – so go and show her some love!

I decided this year that I would have a little fun and get creative with felt. Above are the first seven felt ornament’s I’ve made for my/our advent calendar.

First was this little guy – he is very simple and I grabbed his pattern here: Felt Robin Template and Tutorial. He/she is very sweet, but at this point, I am thinking of making him/her into a hair clip instead! All the other ornaments I’ve made are much larger. He/she is a wonderful first try however – and I am not biased!!

This one was made second and I love love love it!! And not just because I am an owl freak. I found the pattern for him here: Give a Hoot for the Holidays. I didn’t have any rick rack, but I like my first attempt at embroidery design, even if the stitches are a very basic running stitch and french knot – those little boogers are trixy I tell you! I watched this youtube video on learning to make the knots: Embroidery: How to stitch a french knot.

Next up was my Christmas Tree. Originally this one had on glued on (with those craft glue dots) sequins, but my youngest decided that the glue dots looked tasty, pulled all the sequins off and ate the glue dots. *sigh* Tasty! Some quick internet research told me that she wasn’t going to die of poisoning, so I am not worried. I am still irked that she did it though, BUT it was my fault in some regards as I left it unprotected on the kitchen table. I am considering going back and sewing the sequins on it again. I got the pattern here: Felt Christmas Tree Ornament

This little angel is a favourite. She looks so peaceful! A delicate wee creature! I made her pink in honor of my eldest daughter who loves the color, and in my opinion, no Christmas tree is complete without an angel on it! I got her pattern here: How to: Felt Angel Ornament #2

I then decided that I wanted a simple bell. I chose this one: Christmas gift: Felt Holiday Ornaments + Free Ornament Templates. I decided to forgo the bell at the bottom since it is dangly, it makes noise and the bells are shiny… all three of those being attractants to two year olds and children with incessant fiddle fingers. I am hoping to locate my pinking shears this week to trim the edges to look like the original, but I think this is sweet in a very rustic way!

This one is my current absolute favourite!! I couldn’t find a pattern online, so I searched for clip art and discovered this one.

I think he’s lovely! I got pretty close to the original drawing I think, which can be found here: Little Penguin Pattern. I added the heart because I felt that he just needed it 😉 I messed up the french knots a bit – told you they were tricky!

The final one in this set the traditional candy cane 🙂 I like how rustic it turned out. Little G has already tried to run off with it, and when she see it, makes slurping noises and goes Yum! You can find this sweet pattern here: How to: Felt Candy Cane Ornaments.